Essex group says offers to help migrants have 'doubled'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-34151229

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The founder of a group taking supplies to migrants in Calais says the number of people pledging to donate has doubled since pictures of drowned Syrian boy Alan Kurdi emerged.

Supporting Sisters was set up to distribute sanitary products to homeless women in the UK but recently started sending supplies to Calais.

Founder Georgia-Blue Townshend from Colchester said they had been "inundated" with offers of help.

The group plans to make a monthly trip.

"Since the photo was published I've seen double the amount of people contacting me asking how they can help and donate," Ms Townshend said.

"We have a huge supply of maternity pads - about 60,000 - so we wanted to take some of those over," she said.

Since starting fundraising in early August, the group has raised almost £3,000 and took a van full of supplies to Calais last weekend.

"We put a message on Facebook to say we were going in a van, so if people had donations we could take them.

"I was inundated with hundreds of people offering stuff for us to take. The amount of support was fantastic."

Members of the group who took the supplies to Calais had found the experience "overwhelming", the 22-year-old added.

"One thing that stuck in their minds were half-naked children playing in rubbish in the camps, where there are no bins.

"It was incredibly distressing - the kids were smiling because they were safer in that rubbish than where they'd come from."